NO on L: The campaign against Pacifica’s Measure L

One of the great things about Pacifica is that this community has a lively sense of civic involvement and a strong sense of democracy. We are really lucky that some people in the city were thinking about the needs of our community when they developed the Rockaway Specific Plan, that calls for mixed-use new urbanist development at the Quarry site. We are also lucky that city politicians built in a mechanism to make it such that the people of Pacifica could have veto power over any development agreement to build housing on that site. The people of Pacifica exercised that power in a responsible way when it rejected the Trammell Crow plan.

I was therefore dismayed when I heard Peebles refer to that veto power as a "poison pill" at the debate. We have a process that works very well to ensure that the people of Pacifica have the last word on any development in the quarry that includes housing. We should not give away our veto power.

I hope that the people of Pacifica will vote no on Measure L. I also hope that Peebles will respect our democratic process and come up with a development agreement that binds him to the things he says he wants for the quarry.

If Peebles brings a development agreement before the voters that includes a reasonable number of housing units and a new urbanist design, I feel confident that the majority of voters will approve it, and the city will come out of the process united rather than divided.

Cynthia Kaufman
Vallemar

The above was printed as a letter to the editor in the September 13th, 2006 Pacifica Tribune, and is republished here with the author's permission.